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Summary: Archiving information within databases



Dear listmembers,

Hello again. On my posting concerning archiving information within
databases, I received many responses. Also I received many messages from
colleague's around the world (what should we do without the internet?) in my
personal mailbox. For all that, I just want to say: thanks!

That same message was also posted in a Dutch newsgroup, and there too I
received some interesting information. Unfortunately I haven't yet been able
to read all of the given literature... I now seem to have a second study at
my hands.

It has been clear to me by all responses, that my posting was concerning a
topic which has the attention of many colleague's. Also, it seems to me
records managers and archivists differ from opinion sometimes, or perhaps in
some cases most of the times.

For someone like me, with a computer-background, it's besides that necessary
to get the right definitions of some terms like "archive" and "record".

In this message I'll try to give you a summary of the things I read. Before
I do that, I must declare that it's for me by far impossible to do this,
without giving credit to some discussions which I read with great interest,
but which can not fully be integrated in my brief summary.

The most important discussion was the question about what exactly is a
record (document) in a database? Is a record the whole of the data you
collect from different tables within the database that, when you make a
print out of it, meets our "normal" definition of a record? Or maybe it's
also the database itself, containing all of the data. In this case we must
thereby find a way to handle the functionality within the database.

How do we in all cases threat the printed (paper) or saved (digital)
documents? Are they just simple copy's or is a copy in our digital
environment as original as the original itself? Printed paper can also
function as a control-tool for the digital data.

Also, a database contains various data. Not only a cell can hold a name or
something, but also it can be needed by the database itself, for example in
order to keep relations between tables steady. Cells can also contain
information that is needed for the lay-out of some things.

More practical issues are too noticed during the discussions. For example
the problem of guarding the autenticity of the database. Maybe we need to
monitor the changes of the data within it by keeping al log. But what
specific changes will we keep track of then? Certainly not all of them, I
hope...

Another important problem is the fact that most databases are in any way
constant changing sources of information. It then will be hard to archive
them in a good way.

Archving on itself is hard also. Some of us want to archive the complete
database, including its functional parts; others seem satisfied with an
export to a plain-textformat of the data. Of course you'll lose the
functionality and this option doesn't seem easy handling with relational
databases. The making of snapshots is also an option. Concerning myself, I
like the first option best.

When you do that, you'll also need the software, hardware, documentation,
knowledge of the system and so on. Other possibillities are conversion /
migration and emulation. These are regularly worked with in the
computer-industry. Important will be to see that the conversion or emulation
goes well indeed.

In every case records managers, archivists and computer-people must work
together for a solution, and before that they must speak about the same
things in the same way.

And so on, every solution gives us new problems, or should we read
challenges? I my case it has been very usefull to post this message.
Although I'm just starting in this "business", and my English is not that
well, I have the feeling to have learned a lot and maybe I'm not the only
one.

There are many ways to find a solution, or solutions, and perhaps I can
someday make a contribution to one of them.

With regards,

Christian van der Ven
cvanderven@home.nl

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